The Darwin Awards
(2006) dir. Finn Taylor
viewed: 11/24/07
This hackneyed, horribly written, piece of garbage of a romantic comedy…how did it get made? How did director Finn Taylor manage to get so many rather uncanny celebrity cameos in this completely lame-ass film?
Based on a concept/website/book about people who do such stupid things that they take themselves out of the gene pool, which is fine enough, another version of “World’s Stupidest Criminals”. But Taylor turns this into a story about a forensic investigator, gunning for a job with an insurance agency to prove that these people shouldn’t have their claims paid out because of their stupidity.
Okay, and the real reason I watched it is because Winona Ryder was in it. I don’t think she is good or overly bad, but she’s just pretty. She’s still pretty. Those large dark eyes harbor an inherent brightness, and she’s still nice to imagine dating all these years later. I know she’s kinda lame. But we are all allowed these little whatever-you-call-thems. I still like her. I’d still have dinner with her.
Even after this movie.
And the movie has a couple extra points for a few local shots of Tosca’s and a couple of North Beach places. And the real weird thing is the number of notable cameos that make up this film: Juliette Lewis, Lukas Haas, Chris Penn (maybe his last film), Tim Blake Nelson, Josh Kornbluth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Doe, Jerry Harrison, Robin Tunney, and Metallica. It’s so many actually, that it’s kind of weird.
But the movie is hugely unfunny. The romance is unbelievably unbelievable…it’s just rotten.
But, I will see more Winona Ryder films. Just warning you.
